Find a Business

This Issue

MAY 2008

Departments >

10 Things I Love About Gainesville: Carlos L. Rainwater


Carlos L. Rainwater
Interim Community Executive Director Oak Hammock at the University of Florida
10. My wife is a big Gator fan and went to school at the University of Florida; she has always wanted to move back to Gainesville, and making her happy is my number one priority!

9. There are so many cultural opportunities here, from the Hippodrome to the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, there are always entertaining options.

8. The overall atmosphere and ambiance of Gainesville is what a famous author once called the “other Florida”— Florida without royal palm trees, white, sandy beaches and condominiums. It really suits me.

7. I enjoy all of my friends at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. They are truly the most interesting group of people I have ever associated with!

6. Gainesville Golf & Country Club. They have a premier golf course, a family atmosphere and all my friends are members there.

5. Our city and county governments seem to be effective and keep the best interests of citizens at the heart of their decisions.

4. Like real estate people say, the value of anything is location, location, location, and in Gainesville we’re two hours from white, sandy beaches, two hours from Jacksonville, two hours west is Florida’s Nature Coast and two hours south is the number-one tourist destination—Orlando. We have the choice of virtually every environment we could want in two hours!

3. Gainesville residents have access to some of the finest healthcare centers in the country—Shands and the VA hospital.

2. I love looking at Paynes Prairie.

1. I feel like I am at home in Gainesville. When my Creek Indian ancestors were chased out of my Georgia homeland by the Army they came to Paynes Prairie.